Tag: The Optimist’s Manifesto

Wk 12-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes and thoughts from Week 12, 2025

Here are notes from week 12 of 2025.

I am in Delhi. And unlike other Delhi trips, I was mostly homebound. I didn’t step out as much as I do on other trips. I did meet a few people. I went for a walk with Kunal. And then some. But more or less I was home.

Oh, and I took easy this week. I didnt invest too much time or effort in trying to meet people. I have this new found policy – I will match the effort you make to be around me. In case I REALLY need you, want you etc, I will make extra effort. But more often than not I’ve realised that I don’t need to go out of my way. For example, this person – I call her THE ABSOLUTE BEST hire for C4E that we will never be able to hire – I’ve been trying to meet her for 6 months. And each time I am in Delhi, she’s one of the first people I text. And each time, something or the other happens at her end and we dont meet. This time, I decided to not bother. I know my loss but ek nahi to koi aur sahi. I can’t spend my life waiting for one person to show up. And thus I am gonna choose people who choose me. Simple.

PS: Am I wrong? PLEASE do let me know.

And with that rant, moving onto the review.

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

I was to work on the 2025 plan and Book 2.

I didnt make any progress on either. No, I didnt not think about them – just that the laziness of being in Delhi and lot of action on the work front had the better of me.

And no, I am not giving up on either. I will revisit these at some time. Book 2 is easy. Thanks to Bri and Claude, I am ok on that. I spend enough time talking about it, thinking about it that I am confident that it would happen this year. I wanted to push the first draft by end of Mar. That may still happen if I can find time once I am back in Bom. If not that, then by 15th April for sure.

On the 2025 plan, I am not so confident. But I will make it happen eventually.

Moving on…

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health – I was home for the large part of the week. And that means I ate home cooked food. I still feel bloated and I get sleepy right after I eat but at least my sleep is better. Once I am back in Mumbai (on Monday), I will work towards building my kitchen. I am also gonna invest in health (gym etc). I wrote about it last week. I just need to action it. So yay!
I will give myself a 0 on this.

Meru – Regular work. Some products are close to seeing the MVP ready stage. We are moving with hiring. And some more action.
I will give myself a 0 on this.

C4E – Nothing much. Actually -1 on this. Reasons beyond this blog.
So -1

Brand SG – Nothing on this either.
Again, -1.

People – I loved the people I met while I was in Delhi. Plus thanks to Meru, I am meeting more people.
So, +1 on this.

Book 2 – Didnt write as much but I did move the needle.
However, I will give myself a 0.

Shauk – Nothing on this. The list of open projects is long – Madhushala, Aakanksha, Network School (:(), Poker, Optimist Manifesto and many many more.
Another -1

So the overall score is -3 for this week.
Trends from the pevious weeks: -2, -1

The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.
Added this to my tracker too.

📊 The tracker from the last weeks

Here’s the tracker.

I love all the green on sleep hours and recovery.

I think the two of these things are good because I am eating better. Even though I am walking less than average, I am still ok. Guess its the food.

The other highlight is that I am unable to track money when I am home. Even though, this Delhi trip I stepped out far less than I would normally do, I did spend money and yet I didnt track it.

My emotions have been suprisingly in check. For all the hatred that I give to delhi, I am amazed that the things I track are actually, on track!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week gone by.
Not too many. I told ya that whne I am in Delhi, my productivity goes for a toss.

Do lemme know which one you thought was the best.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

Not too many. Just one. Even though I have nothing, I dont want to remove this section.

  1. The Techno-Optimist Manifesto. Here.
  2. Self promotion – Wrote this. Also, updated the contact page.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

Here are some from this week.

A/ Ayush (from Notice)
Met Ayush. He’s the founder of Notice. He’s 24 and WHAT A GUY! I wish I had his brains and talent at that age. I want to do something with him. I dont know what. But parking it here.

B/ SoG 2025
I met a few bright people while I was in Delhi. I plan to bind them in a group or something. And I want to call it SoG 2025.

Unlike other SoG cohorts, I am trying this one to have “older” folks (people who are ~25) and push each of those to make 10X than what they make right now. For example, if I could help Ayush scale Notice 10X? Assuming, he’d want to work with me.

To be honest, I am little out of my depth here but what’s the point of life if we don’t try?

This is in continuation to what I wrote last week about how I want to spend my time and money here.

Coming back.

I made a post on twitter / linkedin asking people to nominate themselves. I’ve got a few replies. Let’s see what I do with it.

Oh, and if you are reading this and you have folks to recommend, please lemme know. I really can make a LOT of difference to lives of people.

C/ What did you get done in last week?
Since the Elon tweet and now with Meru, I am learning an incredible lesson. That things need to move week on week. And they need to be tangible. And we need to be high-agency AF.

And thus I am implementing this across my life. And I will implement this across all the things I do. If you are not high-agency, I dont want you around me. Simple.

D/ Ek Aur Panna
I decided to write off one more friend from my life. I wont talk more about it here but I am unable to operate when I am not treated with kindness. And this is when I’ve invested time, energy and effort into helping you build you life. Pavithra taught my recently that I shouldnt look at things in terms of a transaction but I dont want to be in rooms where I am not respected.

I will choose to be kind, polite, supportive and all that but if you cant treat me well, you could be whoever, I am out.

Also, I need to think – if I am the one who’s writing off people at this speed, will I ever have friends and family left when I am old?

Also, if you are reading this, is this my Ego at play? Help please!

E/ Home
I have made a decision that each month I will come home for a week.

It will mess with work and health and money and all that but I will. In fact, I will book tickets in advance (I cant book them right now – haath thoda tang hai) but I will book these. Till I have enough money to get my parents to move to Mumbai.

F/ Founder Brand
Met this young founder who thinks that building a founder brand will sell his products. I had to tell him to not ape others blindly. While founder brand is an important thing, it can’t be THE only thing! May be I will record a podcast on this. CC AK. Idea for the next episode.

G/ The head in the ass behaviour of someone I respect
Again, related to D above, yet another gent seems to have gotten so big that he’s got his head up his backside. This one is from MDI and is a self-appointed leader of a random group. I dont know what happens to people when they grow big!

Also, my decision on D above, is it because I have my head in my ass?

H/ SG Helps on Marketing
Thanks to this tweet, a couple of people filled in the form. And I spoke to one of those. And again, I was blown by the talent of that person. I think I have stumbled on to something interesting with it. Must find a way to scale it.

I / Dubai
I seem to have trained the algo on Insta on Dubai.

And I know that at least for the foreseeable future, Dubai is not happening. So I need to retrain my algo. Having said that, I want C to continue to focus on building C4E to be a borderless business (even though the world we live in seems to closing with each passing day). Dunno what she wants. I will not push her and let things take their course.

J/ C4E…
…is closing the year with a flat line compared to last year (no growth, no degrowth) in terms of topline and profits.

Not a good news. I was supposed to do 40 crores of topline this year. TBH, we would have been 2X last year if not for the bad last few months.

Again, on this, I want Chandni to write an annual report for all our stakeholders. Again, her wish if she wants to.

K/ Workshop on Taste.
Manas would’ve taken the workshop on Saturday. I was unable to attend (cos am in Delhi). Hope people would have had fun!

To be honest, I am not sure if I like that I am missing all these bombs that we are planting at C4E. I do these becuase I like to do things but if I am not there, then what? But I jknow that I need to focus on buliding Meru to be able to have more.

Sigh!

L/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words…

  1. Lesson on tipping from HT. I will ensure that I will tip EACH place I am at. I know I dont have enough but I will ensure that whatever I have gets distributed well.
  2. Wall of Portfolios is an incredible idea that I wish I had built! I will reach out to each person on that wall and try to make friends.
  3. Booked a wrong flight. I typically don’t make mistakes with these things but I did. And thus this needs to be captured. 
  4. Worked from a McD for three days last week. My soul is crying. 😀 
  5. Had Wai Wai Sadako at Yeti. Loved it. Been in love with it since I went to EBC.
  6. Met friends from childhood – Monu, Kunal. I wish I could live around them. But life has happened. I was reading something that says more than 95% people still live in / around the same pincode where they were born! 

🧠 Reminders from last week

I am adding this section. To capture things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.

Here are things from the past weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Health
    • Kitchen setup
    • Gym membership
  2. C4E
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency / Upwork
  3. Shauk / Personal
    • Poker
    • Better dressed SG
    • Use of money / time
    • Love
    • Demand more from life

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Survive.

No large, deep thoughts. Just plain old being.

In the previous weeks, it’s been Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—

Ok!
This is it for the week gone by. Late by a day. But it’s here. Yay!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

PPS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11

Wk 10-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from the 9th and the 10th week of 2025.

Hello hello!
I am back!
I missed week 9. I was unwell and thus I didn’t publish. I could have but it takes like a few hours of active thinking to get this going and I didn’t want to a shoddy job at it. No, I am not for perfection but I am definitely for putting in the effort and I know I was in no shape to put in the effort. So that.

The other thing, no one asked.
So much so for writing in public, and attempts to build an audience!

Anyhow. The point is, I am back to writing.

A lot seems to have happened in the last 2 weeks. And yet nothing seems to have moved. You know what I mean? Everything is happening at once and nothing is happening at all.

More in the next few paras…

🈺 What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
This remains open. We are now officially in the third month of the year. I’ve never been this delayed with this plan. May be I will take a day off this week and do this?

B/ Health
I have a LOT to report in this department. I got myself kitchen things. After I think 7-8 years. The last time I had a semblance of a functioning kitchen was when Sonali and I lived together in Ghatkopar. Once she moved on, I haven’t had the kitchen things.

I am building it back. I don’t like it to be honest but I need to live long and be healthy while I live long.

I am also adding some more ingredients to what I eat – things like Protein, Oats, Almond Milk, Sattu, Turmeric, Chia Seeds, ACV etc. I’ve built a habit of blending a lot of these things in a grinder and eating / drinking what comes out of it.

Been doing it for 3 days now and so far it seems to be ok.

Oh, the trigger for this was the latest episode of food poisoning. I fell sick and missed a few events. And that’s when I decided I’ve had enough of this life. Oh, I have activated this channel where I will upload EACH thing that I eat. And do read this from my clone.

I just need to add a gym and workout and I think we would be ok.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health – Started to set up the kitchen. Will try and get a cook. And like I said, will add some workouts. I’ll give myself +1 on this.

Meru – This is new. I am adding this on top of C4E. At the time, we are setting up the business and this means there’s a lot of work – team, processes etc. On this a lot is getting done, thanks to Hareesh Sir. I will give myself a 0 on it.

C4E – I am not very active on this any more. The only thing I do now on C4E is take care of my people (mentoring, coaching etc) and service long-term relationships (clients that are now friends and I am invested in their success). The other critical areas (running the kitchen etc) have been taken up by others.

Over time, I want to stop reporting on this. But I may not be able to. C4E is the only thing I’ve created and probably the only thing I am attached to. With or without my running it like a business. Think Berkshire and Warren. I will give myself 0.

Brand SG – Recorded many conversations. For C4E, for Adulting, and for Meru. The first guest for The Otpmist’s Manifesto is decided. So good overall. I will give myself +1.

Now, need to find a way to build distribution.

People – Did nothing. -1

Book 2 – No action. I just need to carve out time to send prompts to Cluade. So, -1

Shauk – Nothing on this. So, another -1

So the overall score is -1 for this week.

The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.
Added this to my tracker too.

📊 The tracker from the last two weeks

Here’s the tracker.

You’d spot a lot of reds. And greens. Blame it on food poisoning. I mean I think it’s food poisoning. I didn’t really go to a doc to check. My aversion to doctors is a well-known thing!

The point is, I was unwell. And that left me with some down days. And that affected how I live and work.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos.

This one is a mix of app screenshots and photos that I took. Do check out some of the sunset pics and videos. Absolutely bombs.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last two weeks

I know there are more things I read and saved. But this is all I have to share at this time.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ Starbucks
I am at a Starbucks as I write this. And I love that I am in the zone while I am here. I just need to build a space like this. At times I think I should start a coworking space. Other times I don’t want to. I may as well say, fuck it, let’s do it. And I may open it up. Anyone wants to partner up?

B/ Love
This is a big one. I think I am ready to find love. If I can find love. I mean I’ve been that romantic who believes that love just happens but it clearly hasn’t happened to me. I am unlucky like that (no am not crying about being unlucky – am VERY lucky otherwise).

Oh, and why do I want to find love?
Well cos apparently love is the fifth ingredient that you need in life to live long and thrive. Read this.

C/ From C4E to Meru
A large part of my time will now be spent on building Meru. While I do that, C4E will be run independently by Chandni, Anshika, Fareen, Kaushik and others. And they will be helped by our friends, colleagues, partners and well-wishers. I need to write a separate post on this someday. Not for others. But for self.

Oh, the other thing that has happened is that I now open Meru’s email before I open C4E’s. If this is not moving on, I don’t know what is.

D/ Spiritual SG
Lately, I have found myself to be very very spiritual. I find deeper meaning in the music I listen to, the actions I take, the people I meet and the decisions I make. I don’t know what this means or where I am going but this is new to me. I’ve been a transactional person all my life. I look at things from a problem-solution lens. And then I move on. Once I add spirituality to things, things change. So that.

I’ve been reading a lot of Kabir, Baba Farid, Buleh Shah, Rumi etc. I am not sure what school of devotion, spirituality, bhakti etc they belong to. But I like what I am reading.

E/ This tweet
I saw a couple of people I love get what they want. And that was incredible! This was easily the highlight of the week gone by. Do read it. Please 😀

F/ Films
While I was unwell, I saw a lot of films. Jack Reacher. The Runaway Jury. I don’t even recall the name of, or the story of the other 8-part series that I saw!

While vegetation is ok for a few days, I remembered that I wanted to make films. I will get back to it. I am not sure when I will find the time with all that’s happening but I will add this to the shauq column and get going.

G/ Mumbai
Here’s a thing. If you are young, ambitious and want to grow, you HAVE to be in Mumbai or Bangalore. No Delhi. No Pune. No Goa. No remote. While on this, read these two by Paul Graham – Ambition and Cities and Hubs. Of course, if you can go beyond India, look at places like Dubai, NY, SFO, Singapore and such places.

I know the world we live in is very connected and all that. But there’s some magic that happens when you shake hands and look at someone in their eyes. Hubs create magic that nothing else can replace.

Oh, this trigger came to my head because in the last few days, I’ve spoken to two really sharp young women who’ve expressed their desire to move from their cocoons to large hubs. In fact, I saw one really smart person move to Pune to join some startup that sells cheap Chinese knock-offs and it broke my heart. It could be a great career move but its life harakiri.

You will get limited as a person if you goto a place like Pune, Nasik, Kochi, Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad (C4E Labs is based out of Ahd, btw) and all that.

Of course, if you are not ambitious, you can continue to “enjoy” the “quality” of life in these second-rate cities. But if you are ambitious and want to make something from your life, consider moving to a hub. Move to epicentres of action and not pine for the relaxed, remote life. You can relax when you’ve done what you’ve been sent here to do. And while the remote things may work for a few exceptional people, in general, for average folks, remote life is not worth it.

And I say this with all my disclaimers (edge cases, exceptions, strong opinions, power of youth, opportunity, privilege, life conditions, family etc etc).

And yes, the fuckery that “hubs” impose on you (bad infra, pollution, “fast” life, “struggle”) is 100% worth it.

H/ Space. Trust.
I realised that I want to have a large space for self. And then some space for my friends and family. You know, sai itna dijiye?

And thus I need more money. To be able to have a large space. And no, not on rent. But own. India sucks like that. Pesky neighbours look down upon you and question if someone is staying the night with you. I don’t know why we are such a low-trust society. And here I am – I put my faith and trust in even strangers.

So I need that. I will work towards that.

I/ Impermanence. Of loss.
Something happened at C4E that made us lose money (about 3 lakhs) and our reputation. As a team, we could’ve done better. We’ve taken our lessons. The largest for me is that I need to listen more to my gut and not give into emotions.

The biggest thing for me from this experience? Ensure that people directly involved are ok. And I second, do not add random processes so avoid such things from happening in the future.

No, I don’t want to get into too much detail. But the last word on this is, this too shall pass.

J/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words…

  1. Looking forward to the workshop on Taste. On the 22nd. More here.
  2. The fact that I live away from my parents continues to eat at me. I don’t know what to do about it.
  3. Loved the connection between Baba Farid and me.
  4. Met a friend and gave him gyaan on how to manage life. I wish I could do more such sessions. Anyone else needs to put a structure to their lives?
  5. Plants remind me of Sonam. Starbucks reminds people of me. What else can one be reminded of? reminded by?
  6. I put this tweet offering help. Spoke to a few people. Must do this more often.
  7. cerebralquotient.com is gonna be live soon!

I think this is it. Was good to be back and writing! I really missed the joy this simple activity brings to me. Must do more of this.

🥡 So, one large takeaway from the week?

Survive. Survival. Surviving.

I think this is how I would summarise the last few days. This is what defines my week

In the previous weeks, it’s been Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed)

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.
PPS: Added emojis!